Some changes this month:
- Two vehicles have been replaced, in the list of vehicles whose sales I track. Dropped, were the Ford Fusion Energi and the BMW i3. Neither of these are selling as well as they once did and are currently being surpassed by the BMW 530e and the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrids. The Pacifica is the first 3 row SUV to be tracked on my monthly updates.
- A new ICE vehicle has been added to my overall sales stats: the Chevy Blazer. The first Blazers have started to arrive, but I have not sold one yet.
As a reminder: GM will lose the full $7,500 tax credit on April 1st of this year, so if you want to purchase a Volt or Bolt EV, get one before April 1st!!! 
GM is still having difficulties with deliveries of Volts and Bolt EVs. The recent polar vortex didn’t help matters. I have eight 2019 Volts and two Bolt EVs that have been built and are still at the factory, waiting to ship. My current Bolt EV inventory consists of one vehicle in stock. I have no 2019 Volts and just seven 2018 Volts left.
Another item of interest, for residents of Texas, is the number of plug-in vehicle grants that have been issued. Out of an allowed 2,000 grants, 1,368 have been issued. That’s 68% of the available grants and I expect the number to rise quickly, since they are processing November through January rebate applications now and there were tons of them, due to the traditional end-of-year spike is plug-in sales.
Notice the high purple line, in the chart below, at the far right side of the graph. That’s the Model 3 sales curve. No other plug-in vehicle has come close to that kind of sales performance. Even with the precipitous (and completely normal) January slump, its sales volume last month was still higher than any plug-in vehicle ever.
Here are the January 2019 sales figures, compared to the previous month. Their sales were all down, by double digits, but that’s normal for January. The surge of sales, at the end of the year, is due to the fact that you can apply for the tax credit just a month or two after vehicle purchase, instead of waiting a full year.
- Chevy Volt: DOWN 36% (675 vs. 1,058) **estimated
- Chevy Bolt EV: DOWN 34% (925 vs. 1,412) **estimated
- Nissan Leaf: DOWN 57% (717 vs. 1,667)
- Plug-in Toyota Prius:DOWN 59% (1,123 vs. 2,759)
- Tesla Model S: DOWN 73% (875 vs. 3,250) **estimated
- Tesla Model X: DOWN 77% (950 vs. 4,100) **estimated
- BMW 530e: DOWN 72% (376 vs. 1,363)
- Plug-in Chrysler Pacifica: DOWN 39% (436 vs. 713)
- Honda Clarity BEV & PHEV: DOWN 56% (1,265 vs. 2,843)
- Tesla Model 3: DOWN 74% (6,500 vs. 25,250)
Gasoline prices bounced around all month. It started at $2.242 per gallon, down from December’s ending price of $2.251 per gallon). The price bounced around a lot, ending above the price it started at, at $2.276. The price bouncing is shown in the chart as the red lines. The blue line is the trend and the red lines are actual prices on the date indicated at the bottom of the chart. As you can see, the day-to-day changes were all over the place. However, the average monthly price still dropped from the previous month’s average! ($2.368 in December vs. $2.257 in January)
My vehicle sales, in January 2019, were above average for January. In fact, this was my second-best January ever. The table to the left of the chart has cells highlighted in red, if my sales were below my historical average for the month and green, if above average. Thanks to my move back to the main showroom, January continued a two month trend, where my monthly sales were above my historical average for that month. At the end of January, I was moved again, this time to the truck building. I’m back working under Hank, the sales manager who originally hired me, so that’s a plus…
My six January 2019 sales were comprised of one Bolt EV, two Volts, a Malibu, a Traverse and a Camaro. The January Volts represented a milestone. They were my 100th and 101st Volt sales, since I started working at Classic Chevrolet. My Bolt EV sales, garnered over a much shorter time frame, reached 69 sales so far.
My plug-in sales, in January, have slumped, which is normal for January. However, it tied the best January EVER for my plug-in sales! The 3 in January 2019 tied January 2018 and bested my January 2017 sale of one plug-in. All other Januaries had just gathered goose eggs…
Plug-in sales, compared to the same month a year ago, were mixed, with three dropping and seven increasing.
- Chevy Volt: DOWN 5% (675 vs. 713)
- Chevy Bolt EV: DOWN 21% (925 vs. 1,177)
- Nissan Leaf: UP 378% (717 vs. 150)
- Plug-in Toyota Prius: DOWN 25% (1,123 vs. 1,496)
- Tesla Model S: UP 9% (875 vs. 800)
- Tesla Model X: UP 36% (950 vs. 700)
- BMW 530e: UP 68% (376 vs. 224)
- Plug-in Chrysler Pacifica: UP 16% (436 vs. 375)
- Honda Clarity BEV & PHEV: UP 59% (1,265 vs. 797)
- Tesla Model 3: UP 247% (6,500 vs. 1,875) **Model 3 debuted in July 2017 and struggled with “production hell” for 10 months or so.
On a final note, a comment on Facebook asked me to comment on where I obtain my sales figures. I use several sources, including InsideEVs, GoodCarBadCar, CarSalesBase and hybridCars.
